A few rebuttles to your comment and others on this thread.
Downloaded plugins and such are not necessary on a website for malware to transfer. All that is necessary is for an advertisement to load which contains the means for a cross site scripting attack. You don't even have to click on anything once you visit the site.

And yes, these attacks happen on totally legitimate sites that are not very discriminating on the ads they run, or whose admins do not properly defend their server against worms/ teh h4x.

XSS attacks are the #1 growing attack technique by far. As long as there is money to be made in infecting computers, techniques will get more advanced as offense is always ahead of defense in terms of Malware/AV software. Simple image and video content is all you need to transfer malware.

I wish it was as easy as saying "Obey these 3 rules and you will not be infected", but that is simply not the case anymore. The people that write this software are honest to God,legitimate, Software Developers. You don't have to like em, but you do have to respect em.

The only way to be 100% certain that you do not end up with malware at the end of the day is not AV software, it's not being cautious, it's not using a mac or linux, it's virtualized environments. And one of these days, even that might not be a panacea.

You just nailed it.
There could be a thousand different reasons why Rom chips would be superior to an optical disk, and in the end it would not matter. Disks are cheap to burn, and you don't have to worry about commodity price fluctuations.
Price to manufacture is the only concern that trumps all others. 60 dollars per new game is high enough, and game companies are not going to decrease their margins on games, nor will distributors or retailers. Any increase in price will be passed to the consumer.
Let's face it: We all hate load times. But we've gotten used to them.

No doubt, developers of software don't want to have to spend all day trying to re-create and fix bugs; think of it from their standpoint. They are being simultaneously tasked with making the program do all the awesome things the marketing department dreams up, but be completely and totally idiot proof. These two tasks are mutually exclusive. That having been said, internally, they are financial motivated to do so. I am in a Q-A type environment, and I get a chance to document failures in our software on a fairly regular basis.
The key to the entire process is working through the channels. I have been with this organization for about a year, they are comfortable with my skills, but at the same time, the guy that wrote the app doesn't know me from Adam. So you document, reproduce, escalate through the proper channels.
I gaurantee you, when you start documenting that the error is costing the company money, and management is aware, it gets worked on.
And support ticket systems are ALL about determining what is costing what amount of money to the company.

Posted
by
Soulskillon Tuesday January 26, 2010 @02:43AM
from the it'sa-me-mario dept.

According to a report from Japanese publication Nikkei Net, Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii has now sold 10 million copies worldwide. The game needed only 45 days to pass the already impressive sales numbers of Super Mario Galaxy. Quoting Gamasutra:
"NSMB Wii has sold 3 million units in Japan, where it launched on December 3; 3 million copies in Europe, where it launched November 20, and 4.5 million units in North America, where it launched November 15. Super Mario Galaxy has sold 4.1 million units in North America since 2007. The game's design hearkens back to the two-dimensional, side-scrolling style of earlier Mario titles ... The numbers would seem to suggest that these traits successfully generated more mass appeal for NSMB Wii than for the three-dimensional and far less familiar Super Mario Galaxy, which sent the plumber navigating more innovative spherical space environments."

Word up.
I've been filling up and then trimming down my Sansa mp3 player, still haven't maxed out the 8gb with rockin tunes, but sooner or later I will have to pick up a Micro SD chip for it. That said, my first experience with Micro SD was for my DS loader, and I swear, I sat there looking at it for about 20 minutes, in awe. 2 gigs on something a quarter the size of a penny, half as thick? The fact that so many people in this thread are nitpicking is just further proof that the future is now. As far as I am concerned, the USB Flash drive is what the Floppy disk always aspired to be. The unfortunate downside to Micro SD is that it is simply TOO small. Too easy to lose/Break.
First HD? 20 mb, and I don't even want to talk about how much it cost. At the time however, it was glorious.

Yes, because right now, after bailing out the financial system, and the auto industry, some industries, like the multi billion dollar security sector, are feeling left out. Where's our share of the grift?

Posted
by
samzenpuson Monday February 23, 2009 @01:01PM
from the so-long-suckers dept.

With so many people losing their jobs, the farewell email, letting colleagues and contacts know where you are moving and how you can be reached, has become common. Writing a really good one, whether it be funny, sad or just plain mad is an art form. Chris Kula, a receptionist at a New York engineering firm, wrote: "For nearly as long as I've worked here, I've hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support." In May, lawyer Shinyung Oh was let go from the San Francisco branch of the Paul Hastings law firm six days after losing a baby. "If this response seems particularly emotional," she wrote to the partners, "perhaps an associate's emotional vulnerability after a recent miscarriage is a factor you should consider the next time you fire or lay someone off. It shows startlingly poor judgment and management skills — and cowardice — on your parts." Let's hear the best and worst goodbye emails you've seen.

I like to name my machines after Batman Characters
The file server is Alfred, the most production server is Batman, the backup is Nightwing, and the clients are Robin, Batgirl, Huntress, and various other past Batman sidekicks. As someone said, I think it has more to do with A: whimsy, and B: a passive aggressive means of defying our corporate overlords.
Naming conventions are fun.

These cats were getting paid to say whatever their bosses told them to. I understand that you are primarily condemning Comcast here, but really? Sticking it to a phone monkey? I've been there man, it's a bad enough job as it is.
Fun fact: If you sense that you have gotten a phone monkey who knows what they are talking about, speaking strictly in hypotheticals is an excellent way to get solid information off a solid rep.

Posted
by
samzenpuson Thursday January 11, 2007 @12:32AM
from the the-speed-of-light dept.

Snowdon writes "Jaycar Sunswift III today started on its 4000km journey across the Australian outback, in an attempt to beat the 8.5 day record from Perth to Sydney. The team expects to complete the journey in 6 days, depending on the weather. It is a seriously innovative machine, with the aerodynamic design iteratively optimised on 80 CS lab computers over three months, custom-built carbon-fibre wheels, chassis, suspension and steering components, and custom-built power electronics and telemetry/control systems (components of which presently use Linux, but will soon run Iguana/Wombat). It is the result of several years' work by both undergraduate and postgraduate students at UNSW. Keep track of the team's progress by visiting www.sunswift.com."

haja writes: "CNN Reports: Scientists create world's largest novelty atom: Scientists have long been labeled as overly serious, narrowly focused individuals who don't have time for fun. But two University of Chicago atomic physicists proved that even the most buttoned-down professionals are capable of enjoying a good laugh every now and then. Last week, Drs. Marcus Hurley and Thom Fredericks unveiled what they are calling their "most hilarious work to date": an oversize novelty atom that measures "a ridiculously huge" 8.2 x 10-10 meters in diameter."

Posted
by
Cliffon Wednesday January 10, 2007 @11:45PM
from the pssst!-can-I-peek-at-your-notes dept.

facetiousprogrammer writes "I have been working for several years at the same company. As part of the 2007 goal, my team is required to get the Brainbench J2EE certification. We have a good knowledge of the Java programming language itself but very little exposure to J2EE. Other teams in the company are using J2EE daily — hence the push for certification. What would be the best approach to be successful in getting the J2EE certification knowing that we won't work or get formal training on J2EE? Is it a desperate cause?"

AMD wants to enable to broad adoption of small form factor PCS with the development of DTX
, and open standards specification. "The DTX standard will take advantage of the existing ATX infrastructure and benefits, including cost efficiency, system options and backward-compatibility, to allow for ground-breaking PC design. The DTX standard will be designed to embrace energy-efficient processors from AMD or other hardware vendors,

Kwiik writes: Aside from the standard screw drivers, multi tools, flash lights, collapsible chopsticks, bootable usb drives with linux, spyware software/hijackthis etc. what do you have in your tool kit? What do you have for repairing software, versus repairing hardware? Do you have a separate tool kit for Windows, Linux and OS-X? What do you recommend for a hardware tech/contracter getting started on his own and stepping away from the world of IT powerhouses? I'm trying to find "one of those things" that will make a client go "wow", and he'll know he found the right tech.

Aleister Crowley once reported what he referred to as globular electricity in 1916, "what I can only describe as calm amazement, that a dazzling globe of electric fire, apparently between six and twelve inches in diameter was stationary about six inches below and to the right of my knee." Mr. Crowley, it may not be all in your head.

A Brazilian team has managed to make similar spheres of light in the lab, while getting them to bounce around for several seconds.

The real mystery here is that ball lightning is a rare occurrence, where few people (approx. 3,000 in US) have actually encountered it. Ball lightning reportedly floats in the air and looks like a sphere, teardrop, or rod-like shape. Many have been said to be red, yellow, blue, or white in color, sometimes transparent, and are commonly associated with large thunderstorms; although, some claim to have experienced this phenomenon during normal weather.

It is typically the size of a grapefruit and lasts for a few seconds or minutes, sometimes hovering, even bouncing along the ground.

Many have made valiant efforts to explain ball lightning including Nikola Tesla in 1904, but a theory proposed by John Abrahamson and James Dinniss at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, claims this is the result of lighting striking soil; thereby converting silica within the soil into a vapor.

Antonio Pavao and Gerson Paiva from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil decided to test this theory by placing silicon between two electrodes and running a current through them. Moving the electrodes away from each other created an electrical arc which shot out glowing pieces of silicon.

This continued to occur until, suddenly, a sphere the size of a ping pong ball formed, and lasted around 8 seconds. "The luminous balls seem to be alive," says Pavao.

They suggested the ball lighting was spinning by the movement of smoke trails that were left behind the orb, and estimated that they were approx 2000 Kelvin; hot enough to burn a hole in Paiva's jeans!

Few have had little success reproducing ball lightning using microwaves; which some disagree on whether it is the same phenomenon for they disappeared milliseconds after the microwaves were taken away.

Syncdata. Tech by day, Journalism critique by mid-day, Crime fighter by night, marshmallow roaster by twilight, but never at dusk. Political junkie. Ladies Man. An enigma wrapped in a riddle, bundled in a long sleeved, earth toned shirt. Catholic, but tolerant of heathens. More tolerant then most heathens are of Catholics.